• Columnists

Donna Fisher, author, "Professional Networking for Dummies"

COLUMN = NETWORKING

Donna Fisher is an entrepreneur at heart. She loves creating and growing fun and profitable businesses. For 20 years, she has had her own business as a speaker/trainer for corporate meetings, conferences and conventions. She earned her Certified Speaking Professional designation CSP in 1998 and has continued to present programs on “People, Power and Possibilities.”

Along with her speaking business, she is the co-owner and President of HiHat, Inc., a manufacturing and retail business for drums and percussion instruments. http://www.percussiononline.com

In 2009, the Percussion Center was ranked as one of the “Top 50 Fastest Growing Woman-Owned Businesses in Houston” based on a growth of 156% from 2002 to 2009 and 20.8% from 2007 to 2008. This led to the creation of her training program, “Drumming Up Business.”

In 2004, she rediscovered her creative side and her love of crocheting while visiting her Mother in North Carolina. The creative juices led to the development of three products, the camishawl, the Sharap and Chakra Shawls. Her product line is Soft & Luxurious custom designed and hand created wearable textiles. http://www.softandluxurious.com

Her five books, “Power Networking,” “People Power,” “Power NetWeaving,” “Switched-On Networking,” and “Professional Networking for Dummies” have been translated into four languages, recommended by Time magazine, and used as reference books in corporations and universities.

Donna’s mission is to be a catalyst for people to communicate and relate with respect and dignity and connect with people to make a difference. She helps people get set up to use Send Out Cards to stay connected with clients, prospects, family and friends.

For more information, visit www.donnafisher.com.

Ripeness is all.”

– William Shakespeare

“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently.”

– Steve Jobs, Apple, Inc.

Find somebody to be successful for. Raise their hopes. Think of their needs.”

– Barack Obama

No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of another.”

– Charles Dickens

The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer.”

– Nolan Bushnell, founder, Chuck E. Cheese's

What is the point of having free will if one cannot occasionally spit in the eye of destiny?”

– Jim Butcher, White Night

It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.”

– William Shakespeare

Don’t follow your dreams. Chase them.”

– Richard Dumb

Let us seize the day and the opportunity and strive for that greatness of spirit that measures life not by its disappointments but by its possibilities.”

– W.E.B. Du Bois

As each woman realizes her power, she transforms the world.”

– Patrice Wynne, WomanSpirit Sourcebook

The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware.”

– Henry Miller

Of course there is no formula for success except perhaps an unconditional acceptance of life and what it brings.”

– Arthur Rubinstein

‎Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way.”

– Booker T. Washington

Confidence is the most important thing you can teach someone… if you can teach them confidence, you don’t have to teach them anything else.”

– Vin Diesel

It is easier to fight for one’s principles than to live up to them.”

– Alfred Adler

There is only one success – to be able to spend your life in your own way.”

– Christopher Morley

To follow, without halt, one aim: There’s the secret of success.”

– Anna Pavlova

Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.”

– Eckhart Tolle

If you look at what you have in life, you’ll always have more.
 If you look at what you don’t have in life, you’ll never have enough.”

– Oprah Winfrey

‎The biggest flaw in our existing theory of capitalism lies in its misrepresentation of human nature.”

– Muhammad Yunus

Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.”

– Robert Frost

We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us.”

– Joseph Campbell

Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow know what you truly want to become.”

– Steve Jobs

The mind is everything. What you think, you become.”

– Buddha

If it isn’t good, let it die. If it doesn’t die, make it good.”

– Ajahn Chah

It is possible to fail in many ways…while to succeed is possible only in one way.”

– Aristotle

Sometimes the dreams that come true are the dreams you never even knew you had.”

– Alice Sebold, The Lovely Bones

Almost anyone can start a community, but it takes real talent and commitment to get people to show up and keep coming back.”

– Andy Sernovitz

We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.”

– Charles R. Swindoll

Letting go of expectations is a ticket to peace. It allows us to ride over every crisis—small or large—like a beach ball on water.”

– Martha Beck

We need to learn to set our course by the stars, not by the lights of every passing ship.”

– General Omar Bradley

Speaking more than one language is no longer just an asset in today’s job market; it is a requirement.”

– Tom Adams, CEO, Rosetta Stone

The only way to compel men to speak good of us is to do it.”

– Voltaire

How do you stay resilient? It’s about momentum. Like riding a bicycle. If you stop you fall over. So I keep pedaling.”

– Diane Lane

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

– Nelson Mandela

Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”

– Seneca

A diamond is a lump of coal that stuck with it.”

– Norwegian proverb

Nothing is a mistake. There’s no win and no fail. There’s only make.”

– Corita Kent

Instead of loving your enemies, treat your friends a little better.”

– Edgar W. Howe

A man without a smiling face
 should not open a shop.”

– Chinese Proverb

Do one thing every day that scares you.”

– Eleanor Roosevelt

It is only with the heart that one can see rightly,
 what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

– Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

We are not meant to resolve all contradictions, but to live with them and rise above them.”

– William Blake

We are perfectionists. We are hungry to work all the time. We are entertained by every aspect of business and we never want to stop working.”

– Suzy Welch

The great use of life is to spend it on something that will outlast it.”

– William James

Nobody talks about entrepreneurship as survival, but that’s exactly what nurtures creative thinking.”

– Anita Roddick, founder, The Body Shop

Be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid.”

– Basil King

Permanence, perseverance and persistence in spite of all obstacles distinguishes the strong soul from the weak.”

– Thomas Carlyle

Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder.”

– E.B. White

Entrepreneurs need to search purposefully for the sources of innovation that indicate opportunities for success.”

– Peter F. Drucker